Sack-o-Subs is opening Friday morning in a new location next door to where the original Ventnor store burned down in June 2022.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
VENTNOR – A family business – an institution since 1969 – will have a grand reopening Friday morning at the corner of Ventnor and Little Rock avenues. And to celebrate nearly 60 years in the business, the original owner, Anthony “Fuzzy” Sacco, 93, is coming out of retirement to make the first sub.
Fuzzy’s grandson Anthony Sacco, 35, is opening the famed Sack O’Subs sandwich shop in a beautiful building next door to where the Sacco “Mother Ship” burned down in June 2022. Anthony Sacco took over the business just eight days before the fire that has robbed Ventnorites of good eats for the last two years.
Anthony’s dad Alfred, who owns two Sack O’Subs locations in Ocean City – one seasonal and the other year-round – said he expects the new store will be “a home run for Anthony.”
“I’m excited and honored to carry the torch for the next 50 years,” Anthony said. “We’ve been a staple in Ventnor for years, and it’s been non-stop asking when we would re-open.”
Anthony said he has been working on getting the building ready, all the while he is operating his other store in Absecon. There’s a fifth store in Egg Harbor Township that’s franchised to someone who is not a family member.
All of the Sacco stores serve the same food – some of it is prepped at a central kitchen in Pleasantville so all the ingredients are fresh and delivered to the stores each day. Most importantly, it’s the bread that makes their sandwiches the best.
“We only use Formica bread,” Alfred said. “We get it fresh every day from their bakery Pleasantville.”
It’s the same bread used at the White House sub shop in Atlantic City, which Fuzzy founded with partners in 1947. His sister still owns the White House and her son runs it, Alfred said.
“Our sandwiches are the same in all stores and the bread is the key,” Alfred said. “I call it a regional delicacy because you can’t get that bread anywhere else.”
Fuzzy opened his first Ventnor location with his brother Ralph in 1969 and after one summer decided they needed a bigger location and wound up at the iconic storefront on Ventnor Avenue that’s painted bright orange. They operated there next to the Ventnor Theater, now Ventnor Square Theater and Nucky’s Speakeasy, for many years until they sold it. Although there were other owners in subsequent years, the famous Sack O’Subs were served there until the fire.
It would have been too costly to rehabilitate the burned building, so Anthony made a big investment in the corner location, which over the years has been Mr. Gordo’s taqueria, Vincenzo’s, Perfetti’s, and back in the day, a candy store. He lives above the restaurant and plans to make running the store his life’s work, he said.
“It’s good to be back in Ventnor. People grew up eating our sandwiches,” Anthony said. “It’s more than nostalgia or tradition, it’s the memories you make with your family, your friends and being at the beach.”
Alfred said people feel that eating at Sack O’Subs is like getting back to their roots.
“It’s like music. You hear that song on the radio and it takes you back in time. That’s how people feel about our food.”
On Friday morning, the family will be back in Ventnor serving a complete menu of subs, pizza and Italian dinners.
“Dad was strictly subs, but we had to keep up with the times and offer different stuff,” said Alfred who opened his first Ocean City shop in 1994. “So we expanded to pizza and dinners. We make everything from scratch. We’re old-school like that. Why change what’s not broken.”
Alfred, who has 10 children, said all of them worked for the family business at some time or other. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he put all of them to work, but with Anthony, it stuck.
“I told him that in this business, you won’t be rich, but you’ll work hard and you’ll always have something to eat,” Alfred said.
A ribbon cutting is planned for 10 a.m. Friday, March 1.
Sack O’Subs is located at 5223 Ventnor Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. Call in your order at 609-823-2552.
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Updated: Fire consumes property abutting Sack-O-Subs, Ventnor Square Theater evacuated
